Parent-Adolescent Interactions as Predictors of Adolescents’ Attachment Style and Peer Relationships

Kindsey Smith, Jordan Charles, Chris Baccile, and J. Kelly McCoyBrigham Young University - Idaho

Purpose of Our Study

• The purpose of our study was to understand the relationships between parenting styles and the quality of adolescents’ peer relations

• In the current study we will explore the idea that adolescents own attachment styles, or working models, may be a significant mediator between parenting behavior and the quality of adolescents’ peer relations.

Theoretical Model

Importance of Friendships and Peer Group Relations.

•Social relationships, and in particular friendships, play a vital role in a child's development (Berndt, 1999 and Hartup and Stevens, 1999). Friendships provide an opportunity to develop social and cognitive skills such as cooperativeness, sharing, altruism and conflict management (Newcomb & Bagwell, 1998). •During adolescence intimacy intensifies, which motivates them to seek out close friends. If adolescents fail to form those close relationships they will experience loneliness and reduced sense of self worth (Sullivan, 1953).•Although adolescents who experience negative parenting are at risk for later adjustment problems, positive peer relationships may attenuate this link (Lansford et al. 2003). 

Parenting Affects Friendship and Peer Group Relations

• Parent’s choices of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and their own friends influence the pool from which their adolescents select possible friends(Rubin & Sloman, 1984, Parenting Practices and peer Group Affliation article)

• Parents can model or coach their adolescents in ways of relating to peers (Mounts, 2010; Ross & Howe, 2009)

• In one study, parents acknowledged that they recommended specific strategies to their adolescents to help them develop more positive peer relations (Rubin & Sloman, 1994)

• Family structure, socio-economics, ethnic and marital arrangements are some of the ways that parents retain some influence over teens. (Parenting practice and peer group)

• Investigators have found that parental influence on children's behavior remains extensive in adolescence.

Adolescent Attachment Style

Avoid• You are comfortable with not having close

emotional relationships. It is very important to you to feel independent. You prefer not to depend on others or have others depend on you.

Ambivalent• You like to have very close emotional

relationships. Sometimes you find others don’t want to be as close as you want to be. You sometimes worry that others don’t care about you as much as you care about them.

Secure• It is easier for you to become emotionally close

to people. You are comfortable depending on others. You like having others depend on you. You don’t worry about being alone or having others not accept you.

Attachment and Peer Relations

•Those with secure attachments tend to have emotional regulation to solve conflict in their friendships. There also seems to be evidence of low ratings of social anxiety (Zimmerman, 2004; Kobak & Sceery, 1988 ). •Adolescents associated with dismissed attachment report not valuing close relationships and describe themselves as “emotionally independent” (Zimmerman, 2004).

•Adolescents with preoccupied attachment fluctuate between positive and and negative views in their friendships. They have expectations in friendship that is not elaborated (Zimmerman, 2004).

•Adolescence will use peers for their attachment needs, while still forming autonomy with parents. These needs are “transferred” from caregiver to peers (Cassidy & Shaver, 2006)

How family is Important to Attachment

• All teaching of right and wrong begins with attachment--the warm, emotional tie that children have with their parents.

• Children learn from and are influenced most by those persons who are most meaningful to them, and the most meaningful adults are those to whom the child is emotionally attached.

• Everything we know about human behavior suggests that the family is the institution in which most children learn about character and morality.

• Character traits based on respect for authority and social rules, such as honesty, cooperation, responsibility, and self-reliance, are learned first within the family sphere. If learned well, these traits are then transferred beyond the family to dealings with society at large.

• As social psychologist Willard W. Hartup has concluded, "A child's effectiveness in dealing with the social world emerges largely from experience in close relationships." (Hartup, Willard W. "Social Relationships and Their Developmental Significance." American Psychologist 44-2:120-126, 1989)

• Social psychologist William Damon puts the issue forcefully: "the child's respect for this authority is the single most important moral legacy that comes out of the child's relationship with the parent." (Damon, William. The Moral Child: Nurturing Children's Natural Moral Growth (New York: The Free Press, 1988), p. 52)

1. Mother and Father parenting behavior will predict measures of adolescent friendship quality.

2. Mother and Father parenting behavior will predict adolescents’ three different attachment styles.

3. Adolescents’ three different attachment styles will predict measures of adolescent friendship quality.

4. Adolescents’ attachment styles will serve as mediators between the parenting behavior and the measures of adolescent friendship quality.

Hypotheses

Participants & Procedures

Participants

• Self-report data was collected by mail from 183 adolescents from two relatively major cities in the west.

• Adolescents’ ages ranged between 13 and 15 years of age.

• Eighty five percent of the sample were living with both biological parents.

• Seventy-three percent of the sample attended church weekly.

• Ninety percent of the sample were “White or Caucasian”.

Procedures Adolescents were identified using targeted information from a survey research center. Questionnaire packets were mailed to adolescents and their parents with a letter explaining the general purposes of the study and inviting adolescents to participate in the study. Parents are encouraged in the introductory letter to review the questionnaires, but are asked to not view it once their adolescents have completed the questions. Adolescents were promised that a five-dollar gift certificate would be mailed to them upon their returning the completed survey.

Measurements

Mother/Dad Warmth and Control

Mother Warmth: Alpha = 0.811

• Appears to understand my problems and worries

• Enjoys talking things over with me

• Does not seem to understand what I need or want

• Makes me feel I’m not wanted • Doesn’t talk with me very much

Mother Control: Alpha = 0.750

• Tries to control everything I do

• Invades my privacy

• Is overprotective of me

Dad Warmth: Alpha = 0.781

• Appears to understand my problems and worries

• Does not seem to understand what I need or want

• Makes me feel I’m not wanted

Dad Control: Alpha = 0.781

• Tries to control everything I do • Invades my privacy

• Is overprotective of me

Measurements

Parent-Teen Communication

Positive Parent-Teen Communication: Alpha = .827

• I am very satisfied with how my parents and I talk together.

• I find it easy to discuss problems with my parents.

• My parents try to understand my point of view.

• My parents are always good listeners. • If I were in trouble I could tell my parents. • My parents can tell how I’m feeling without

asking.

Measurements

Parenting Style Permissive Parenting

My parents leave this up to me to decide.

Democratic ParentingMy parents as my opinion about this but they have the final say.

Autocratic ParentingMy Parents tell me exactly what to do.

Measurements

Adolescent Attachment Style Avoid Alpha = .573

• You are comfortable with not having close emotional relationships. . . . .

• I have difficulty depending on other people.• I am nervous when other get too close to me.

AmbivalentAlpha = .720• Sometimes you find others don’t want to be as

close as you want to be. . . • My desire to be very close sometimes scares

people away.

Secure Alpha = .590• It is easier for you to become emotionally close

to people. . . .• I feel comfortable sharing my private thoughts

and feelings with my closest relationships.

Measurements

Peer Groups

Core Group: Alpha = .575• I feel very comfortable being with my group of friends. • I know that I can depend on the other people in my

group of friends. • Others in my group tend to go along with what I say

and do.

Peripheral Group: Alpha = .677• I sometimes wish that I was closer to the other people

in my group. • I worry that if I don’t do what my friends are doing, my

friends will no longer accept me as a part of their group.

• I feel like the other people in my group are closer to each other than they are to me.

No Group

• I don’t see a need to belong to a specific group of friends.

Measurements

Friendship Quality

Deviant Friends: Alpha = .908• Purposely damage or destroy

property? • Use alcoholic beverages (beer,

wine, hard liquor)? • Run away from home?• Steal or try to steal things worth

$20 or less? • Hit or threaten to hit people? • Use hard drugs such as heroin,

cocaine and LSD?

Best Friend Caring: Alpha = .804• This friend can tell when I’m

upset about something. • This friend encourages me to

talk about my difficulties. • I can tell this friend cares about

my problems and troubles. • If this friend knows something is

bothering me, he/she will ask me about it.

Best Friend Warmth: Alpha = .808• I feel that this friend is a good

friend. • I trust this friend. • This friend respects my

feelings.

Best Friend Conflict: Alpha = .677• This friend doesn’t understand

what I’m going through these days

• It seems as if this friend is irritated with me for no reason.

• I often argue with this friend about his/her opinions.

• There are many things that this friend does that I have a hard time accepting.

Correlation Matrix of Latent Constructs

Parenting and Teen Friendship Quality

Variable Mom Warm / Mom Control / Dad Warm / Dad Control / Pos. Parent-Teen Comm.

Deviant Friends -.332** .198** -.082 .169* - 298**

Best Friend Cares -.026 -.041 .047 .120 .052

Best Friend Warmth .038 -.075 .165* .021 .218**

Best Friend Conflict -.143 .222** -.078 .132 -.118

Core Group .073 -.083 .054 .035 .171*

Peripheral Group -.152* .115 -.017 .045 -.157*

No Group -.133 .168* -.156* .130 -.218**

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Correlation Matrix of Latent Constructs

Parenting and Attachment Styles

Variable Avoidant Ambivalent Secure Mother Warmth -.249 -.197** .258**

Mother Control .313** .304** -.163*

Father Warmth -.258** -.146* .186*

Father Control .166* .164* .072

Autocratic Style .084 .176* -.022

Democratic Style -.040 -.056 .009

Permissive Style -.044 -.116 .008

Pos. Parent/Teen Comm. -.302** -.298** .389**

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Correlation Matrix of Latent Constructs

Best Friend Quality and Attachment Styles

Variable Avoidant Ambivalent Secure

Deviant friends .219** .055 - .220**

Best Friend Cares - .251** -.052 .429**

Best Friend Warmth -.259 ** -.122 .361**

Best Friend Conflict .285** .127 -.307**

Core Group -.221** -.129 .375**

Peripheral Group .263** .416** -.202**

No Group .073 .105 -.016

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Correlation Matrix of Latent Constructs

Friendship Quality and Parenting Styles

Variable Autocratic DemocraticPermissive

Deviant Friends -.011 -.091 .102

Best Friend Cares -.002 .016 -.009

Best Friend Warmth -.065 -.017 .074

Best Friend Conflict .051 .095 -.127

Core Group -.014 .077 -.045

Peripheral -.033 .032 -.001

No Group .123 -.139 .000

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Structural Equation Models

Mother Model and Caring Best Friend

Mother Model and Periphery Group

Father Model and Best Friend Conflict

Father Model and Group Periphery

Summary of Findings

Summary

• The correlation matrices revealed moderate associations between the parenting measures and friendship quality.

• These same parenting measures showed strong associations with adolescents’ attachment styles.

• Adolescent secure and avoidant attachment styles also demonstrated strong associations with all of the measures of friendship quality.

• The structural equation models revealed that:

• secure attachment served as a significant mediator between parenting and adolescent friendship for all models except the two models with adolescent peripheral peer status as the final dependent variable.

• For both mother and father models of adolescent peripheral peer status, ambivalent attachment served as a more significant mediator.

Conclusions

• We were amazed at the number of significant correlational links between the measures of parenting, adolescent attachment, and adolescent friendship quality.

• We were also surprised by how many of these links disappeared when examined within the structural equation models.

• Our study demonstrated strong potential value for considering adolescent attachment style as a mediating link between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting and measures of adolescent friendship quality.